swscholasticbowlfandomcom-20200216-history
Sylvia Plath
' Sylvia Plath' (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, before receiving acclaim as a poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956; they lived together in the United States and then England, and had two children, Frieda and Nicholas. Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult life, and in 1963 she committed suicide. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. Tossup Questions # This author referred to the title location as the "morgue between Paris and Rome" in one poem. The narrator of another of this author's poems claims to be an arrow flying towards "the red / Eye, the cauldron of morning." In another poem, this author warned "Herr God, Herr Lucifer / Beware / … I eat men like air." This author of "Lady Lazarus" admitted "I may be a bit of a Jew" while addressing "a man in black with a Meinkampf look," "Daddy." In her only novel, this author wrote of Esther Greenwood's psychotherapy after an attempted suicide with sleeping pills. For 10 points, name this American author of the collection Ariel and The Bell Jar. # In one poem by this author, the speaker describes "Counting the red stars and those of plum-color". That poem by this author begins: "I shall never get you put together entirely / Pieced, glued, and properly jointed". One poem by this author declares: "The child's cry / Melts in the wall. / And I / am the arrow". This author described a "Polish town / Scraped flat by the roller / Of wars, war, wars" in one poem. This poet of "The (*) Colossus" described the title figure as "Marble-heavy, a bag full of God" and "A man in black with a Meinkampf look" in a poem based on her troubled relationship with her father Otto. For 10 points, name this American confessional poet whose collection Ariel includes "Daddy" and was published two years after her suicide. # One of this author's poems dubs the title city a "morgue between Paris and Rome" and claims "Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children". Another of this author's poems declares "Thirty years now I have labored to dredge the silt from your throat" and describes how "a blue sky out of the Oresteia arches above us". The speaker is "at one with the drive into the red eye, the cauldron of morning" in the title poem of her second collection, which also contains "The (*) Munich Mannequins". This author of "The Colossus" claimed that "every woman adores a Fascist" in a poem whose title character is told "You do not do, you do not do". For 10 points, name this Confessional poet who wrote Ariel, "Daddy", and The Bell Jar before her 1963 suicide. # This author wrote a poem in which the speaker describes the "silence of astounded souls" in "Crossing the Water." One speaker by this author states that "I shall never get you put together entirely," while another claims that "Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children." This author of "The Colossus" claims to "eat men like air" in one work, while in another, the speaker describes "a man in black with a Meinkampf look" before declaring "you bastard, I'm through." This author of "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy" created a character who interns at the Ladies' Day magazine in New York City, Esther Greenwood. For 10 points, name this author of The Bell Jar. # This author described the "pivot of heels and knees!" in a poem whose speaker claims to be "the arrow, the dew that flies" while riding on horseback towards the rising sun. She compared herself to a "pure gold baby that melts to a shriek" in a poem that begins "I have done it again, one year in every ten" and ends "Out of the ash I rise with my red hair, and I eat men like air". In another of her poems, the image of a "man in black with a (*) Meinkampf look" represents her husband, Ted Hughes. That poem opens with the line "You do not do, you do not do" and tells the title figure "you bastard, I'm through." For 10 points, name this poet of "Ariel", "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy", whose only novel The Bell Jar was published shortly before her 1963 suicide.